Till the Stars Come Down

 

When: 8th February 2024

Where: Dorfman Theatre, London

Writer: Beth Steel 

Director: Bijan Sheibani

Till the stars come down, takes place on the day of Sylvia's wedding, what better setting for a family drama. Whilst perhaps not a largely original story, reminiscent of soap operas, Steels play feels fresh. It has both well written comedy and some fairly difficult subjects, which are well balanced to create contrast and cohesion. Steels understanding of character shines through, particularly in the opening scene, in which the use of overlapping speech, jumping between topics of conversation and everyday distractions create a sense of hyper-realism. The scene brilliantly sets the tone for the piece, and introduces us to the quirks and characteristics of many of the characters, without separating them or losing propulsion. It starts off at pace and never really loses that energy. This is a testament to her skill and ability as a writer.  

The play was visually exciting and engaging. I found the grass an interesting choice, and whilst I'm still not fully sure how, it seemed to fit the play perfectly. I also loved the use of the rotating platform, it's becoming more common in productions but I hadn't yet seen it used in the round. In scene's such as the dinner, it was brilliant having the scene slowly rotate. Not only did it give the audience opportunity to see the performance from all angles, but it fit the loose theming of space and orbiting that was brought up at multiple points throughout the story. In addition the use of real life objects again enhanced the feeling of realism. Whilst the staging was not naturalistic, I felt that it was exactly what was needed to transport the audience, making it feel believable, without overshadowing the actors, this is a story about people at the end of the day.

One of my favourite scenes was the visual representation of the orbiting planets. Not only was it visually appealing, highlighting these themes of space once again, but it was also full of tiny little moments. Glances, facial expressions, ignorance, it beautifully portrayed the point at which we sat in the story from each characters perspective, before taking a break for the interval. 

I really enjoyed this theming of space and orbits, it created great moments for theatrical exploration, allowing for short breaks in the heavy naturalism. I understand that it appeared to mainly come from the younger generations presented, a perspective on the end of the world or the future. Yet, I struggled to see where it fit into the bigger picture of the play. In a similar way the themes of racism and bigotry were strong, clearly more than space this became a guiding feature in the play, causing much tension. However, it felt a little like it was a much bigger separate issue than the others presented within the family, leading me to feel like there was a lot more to be dug into.

As an expansion on the idea's of bigotry presented in the play, I want to focus on the character of Marek (Marc Wootton) Sylvia's new husband, who has moved to England from Poland. His presence in the family held a lot of the tension, or at least he was used as a scapegoat for much of it. It definitely provided an outlet for certain characteristics in people, especially Hazel and Carol, but on the whole his character was possibly the least explored. We know that his parents do not come to the wedding, but I'm not sure it's ever fully explained why. We could speculate that it is another example of the divisions between the two ethnic groups, but we are only really given one side of this story so that may be unjust. The other interesting thing about Marek is the casting of Marc Wootton, an English actor. In the industry today you expect actors to be from the same ethnic background as the character, yet in a play that deals with racism and bigotry its interesting that this is not the case. Perhaps it is an expansion on these themes, portraying commentary on racisms continuing grip on society, or the continuing controlling racist mindset of much of the British population. 

The other point I want to explore coming off of this is the kiss storyline. When Leanne kisses Marek, it is a shocking moment, whilst during the scene we can feel it approaching, in the moment there was an audible gasp from the audience. This was exaggerated further when she then claims that Marek kissed her first. Whilst this is the breaking point of the play, when all characters break lose and physically take their anger out on Marek, the reasoning behind it feels weak. Later we learn that she claimed she did it to cover up her fathers affair, I struggle with this. For one, I felt there wasn't enough of a relationship built up between Leanne and her father, for us to see how she prefers him to her mother. Similarly, there was little evidence built up showing her plotting this, and even the idea that she had planned this feels a little odd to me. In the moment I thought it was simply a teenager having a crush on an older man type storyline, which I have seen multiple times before, so whilst I appreciate the originality for me it needed stronger justification in the rest of the play. Particularly as it changed the character of Leanne dramatically, which was then also not explored further. 

The other intriguing aspect of the play was Sylvia's connection to her mother. Not only was she wearing her mothers wedding dress throughout, but she also seemed to hold the power to stop time by putting her index fingers together, the same as her mother she explains. I found this really interesting, and it created a slight fantastical element to the play. I was disappointed that it wasn't used more within the narrative, or explored deeper. I understand that this may have altered the naturalism in the piece and that is perhaps not where the writer wanted it to go, but I think it could have been an interesting and different angle to take on the entire play.

The most prominent theme in this play is family. The play gives us an insight into this specific families dilemma's. Whilst it's put up for entertainment, for us to watch and judge, its highly relatable opening up a space for reflection. I'm sure the majorly British audience could find at least one character in the play that they know an example of in real life. The play is a commentary on British, particularly northern, working class families. More specifically the play explores the relationship between three sisters; Hazel (Lucy Black), Sylvia (Sinead Matthews) and Maggie (Lisa McGrillis). I thought all three were acted superbly, they all understood their characters well and held the balance between realism and over-eccentricity. 

My final brief point about this play was the ending. The final argument, ending with the three sisters in a cyclical style was great, but for me it was then ruined by the cliched use of a scream and a blackout. An over used technique, that ruined the ending for me and almost took away from the tension that had been built up throughout the entire course of the play. 

Overall, I did really enjoy this play. I found it engaging, both visually and narratively, with strong performances from all the actors. Whilst I don't think it's perfect, it is a brilliant example of a successful and exciting family drama.